She.
We’ve gotten desperate with Tanner, who has maintained a state of screaming (thank goodness few blows landed) war with Sei and Shu. And any time we go into the kitchen we get Tanner howling on the stairs. If Jane moves at night—he hears, and starts howling. After months and months and months of trying…
My last theory was—female kitten to keep the old guy company down there. The pound had only older cats. The feed store had little black kittens, one female.
She is a Siamese-y type, elegant, long-legged, and gifted with a mighty purr. She is inky black all the way to the skin, except a hazy locket and white tufts in her ears, so I’m betting a Siamese mama, POSSIBLY a snowshoe Siamese, and a random Romeo—hard to guess from which side of the blanket the ear tufts come.
She has no fear—well, her little heart beats hard when I bring her near Tanner, but she’s quiet about it; and I deliberately hold her while petting him. He’s gotten from foul-mouthed yowl to a hiss to a huh! well… And her purr has a lot of do with it. Shu isn’t keen on her on first meeting; but Sei is, well, stoic about it, and trying to be polite.
She’s 8 weeks old. She hasn’t told us her name yet. But we’re listening. Her joking name is Nefernefernefer, Egyptian for beautiful, 3x. And what we swore about a fourth kitty in the household.
Today we hope to get some pictures.
Oh, best fishes with the new one! Your patience with Tanner is saintly; trying to introduce a new cat into a more-or-less established household always means an upset in the pecking order and sometimes bad behavior.
You must have given off the ‘good cat momma’ vibe; many pounds and pet stores will not sell black cats around Halloween because of the potential for idiots to mistreat them.
Dad was undoubtedly a traveling salesman.
CJ, many thanks for your reply in the previous thread. I’ve given a status update. Yes, I’m hoping for a “barn cat” outcome for Curry. He’s frustrated and angry at being thwarted, unfairly as he sees it. Working on an option with a local org that I hope will work out today or tomorrow.
(Er, I will have to ask the apts. to replace one or both living room / kitchen blinds. He has wrought kitty vengeance and eager-to-see-out upon them, and alas, they shall never be the same again. Heh. But that is fixable and minor, at least to me, though likely not to the apt. mgmt. I figure reporting it, asking for the repair/replace, fulfills the obligation to keep the place in good order and presentable.
Monsieur Perambulatoire is currently yowling, still unhappy at the latest denial of Outside! Sorry, kitty, can’t do it. You would never have a good life outside around the apartments. Darn little guy wanted Outside during the tropical storm, little fluff-brain. Ah, no, buddy, wasn’t gonna happen.
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The new black kitten, Siamese or Oriental shorthair mix, sounds really lovely and sweet. I hope she’ll mesh well with Tanner and with Shu and Sei. Haha, at Sei’s assessment. He’s at least willing to be polite and put up with it. I sure hope it helps Tanner to have a companion. I feel fairly sure a girl kitten can stand up for herself if need be. But let’s hope instead peace and alliance reigneth, affiliation, familiarity.
I suspect Goober has some bit of Oriental or Siamese somewhere in the mix. He’s very long and lean by nature, an elegant fellow. He remains his sweet, gentlemanly self, who cannot understand why another cat would wish to be so rude as to lord it over him or behave badly. — I’ve seen how very fortunate, blessed, I am to have him.
Cat-nameing. — I wonder if I should’ve realized something was up when it took so long for Curry to get a name. Usually, this works itself out. The cat names him/herself.
It’s always been an odd quirk that Goober was given to me on Oct. 31st. Not really planned, but how it worked out. Ah, and I take a very dim view of those who would be cruel to cats (or any animal) (or people) just because they can. I like cats, black or otherwise, equally well.
Bless the new little arrival. Poor Tanner needs some way to get past his unhappiness, and you all, the rest of the household, feline and human, need it too. I can sure sympathize, given the past eight plus weeks. Here’s hoping she grows into a fine feline jeune-fille, and Tanner and all gain some happiness, peace and prosperity, from the new addition.
Curry, you are one persistent cat. Ever vigilant. You should try out for town crier, messenger, notifier. Oh, I hope you’ll mellow in your new place, if only it can happen soon.
—–
I had a “fourth” black cat. He was a he, though, with a white tip on his tail. The world gave him to me, and he was the last one to go. Oddly, he got along best with my eldest cat at the time, a 1-generation-removed-from-feral grey stripey who was diabetic and such a love.
Hopefully, Miss Nef will calm things down. Poor Tanner. Breaks my heart . Poor Shu. I have a feeling he might find himself #2 without quite realizing how or when it happened. I will be interested to see how things work out.
I got all my cats as kittens. When I got Stormy as a kitten, I bought a big ferret cage to keep her in until everybody had hissed and made up. It was large enough to have plenty of floor space left over after food and litter containers were placed. It had shelves that could be positioned for the kitten to climb on. I rolled the cage from room to room — into my office while I worked, into the LR when I watched TV, into the kitchen, and back into the bedroom at night. I did not sequester anybody. or shut anybody out of the room. The other cats had free access to the cage. The cage protected the kitten from the aggression of the other cats while they got used to having another cat in the household. Of course, I handled the kitten frequently, and the other cats got used to its smell on me. Once the kitten had gotten some size and things were settled down a bit, I would start doing “control releases” letting the kitten out of the cage for periods of time under my supervision. to interact with the other two. I used it with Jaks, the black one, too, and it seemed to work out well.
I guess it’s tough to get elderly, for both people and animals. But I think you are doing a very good deed in taking Tanner in. I do think that having a companion will help him. I follow a You Tube channel of the Kitten Lady who rescues orphan new born kittens – she raises them until adoption and recommends that if you get a cat, you should get two cats.
Jonathan up here in cool New Hampshire. It looks like the leaf turning season will not be so great.
A not so great leaf season because of that brief but ferocious northeaster “bomb cyclone” two night ago blew half the leaves off! Our power didn’t go out in Malden, Massachusetts but my mother’s did in Barrington, NH. Luckily, she has a generator.
My parents said that having two kittens was a little easier than having one, especially when they were from the same litter. (In Texas, all theirs were barn cats, but not feral. They did hunt, though.)
Well, there was Neferti, so why not Nefer-T or Nefer-3?
Good luck to Nefer³!
Nefer Better? 😉
I watch Kitten Lady’s channel too; also Cole and Marmalade (and Cat Man Chris). I therefore tend to get YouTube recommendations to others, like hobbicats (four very elegant, alien-looking Oriental shorthairs, very spoiled, very sweet). I’ve seen Jackson Galaxy occasionally, among others.
Kitten Lady must be made of strong stuff. She plainly cares, gives a lot of love, and fosters many kittens until ready to adopt out. I’d tend to get attached. In the past, though, with puppies and kittens, when I was a kid and teen,, I understood they were going to get homes. Occasionally, one would stay.
Almost every cat I’ve had has been a stray or given to me as a free kitten / cat from someone. Where I grew up, there were always extra cats, and by my early teens, we had a mama cat, semi-feral but who made our house (outside) home base. At the interim house, two cats volunteered themselves, showing up the night we moved in and the day we moved out, respectively. My two previous to Goober moved themselves in by leaving neighbors, at my parents’ house during the early 90’s, and I had Toby then until he was 13, in early 2006. I was without a cat for months, not yet ready to take one, and a friend gave me Goober Oct. 31st of that year. Smokey was a street kitten rescue in 2010, given to me.
My current plan is for it to be just Goober and me for the remainder of his life, perhaps two to five years, I’d guess. — If a kitten or cat does enter our lives, I want to be extra sure he or she gets along famously with non-assertive, gentlemanly, still lively (at a sedate, courtly pace, mind you) Goober.
Ah, these things have a way of changing when we don’t expect them. I’ll always be glad to have cats in my life. — I likee dogs just fine too, though I haven’t had a dog in the family since the mama dog, who was my mom’s dog, passed away when I was an early teen. She was one sweet old dog, and I was at the time an early, occasionally too bratty teenager instead of properly appreciating the old sweetheart of a dog. I expect to need to apologize when it’s my own time to cross that rainbow bridge.
I don’t know if at some point my vision will mean I need a seeing eye / guide dog. If so, I will likely adjust fine, and any cat will have to also.
Oh my, a lively new kitten, all that energy, curiosity, play and intelligence, and often, eagerness to love and be loved.
(Curry is still here. No call or knock today. Hoping it’ll be resolved tomorrow. If I don’t hear from anyone, I expect to have to call other places on Monday. This after checking with the organization and coordinating with my vet, whose office was going to send over Curry’s medical records so we’d be all set. So…Curry is once again asking to go Outside, Outside, Outside, human! and he’ll be here at least part of tomorrow, possibly through the weekend and into Monday. I had hoped it would be resolved today. Poor little guy. I sure hope he gets a happy outcome, a new home outside he will love.)
Nefer is a lovely name for a kitten and there is even a glyph for the name—interestingly, the visual origin of the NFR glyph is a “heart and windpipe.” Mind you, the origin of the Ankh (symbol for “life”) is a sandal strap. (Info courtesy of a super book I use in my Ancient Egypt: Then & Now course, “Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Complete Beginners.”
And it would be great if Nefer made Tanner less ankhious.
Sorry. Bad me.
That was both terrible and great!
Cat: You may adore me now!!!!eleventy!!11!
That book sounds neat. Drat, no ebook edition. But it’s cheaper than ones that came up in the search, aimed at (I presume) teens and adults, such as “Fun with Hieroglyphics.”
We may be onto something here. Wasn’t Indy looking for the ancient city of Tanis / Tannis? So, Tanner, Tannis…I suppose if you add in tennis shoes….
Ankhious, eh? How many Angstroms of Ankhs-ious-ness? Heeheehee….
Oh, and my mind just had to think of, the “Nefer-Ending Story.” — Hmm, IIRC, Falcor, the luck dragon, while rather pink-furred, was male (presumably), and also IIRC, Atreyu’s horse was a fine wild stallion named, was it Artax? If we wanted the feminine form of Falcor, should we suppose that’s Falcrix? Falcora? Maybe Falcorê if Greek? (I’m now trying to avoid the Millennium Falcon idea, as she is a fine ship, but I couldn’t really see naming a cat after her.) Artax…Artaxa? Artaxis?
Hmm, fun conjecture aside, Nefer does seem to fit better. — I wonder, what would the Coptic or the modern Egyptian language forms be, for “Nefer”? (Darn it, where is that pesky Daniel Jackson, or Teal’c, around when you need them for a translation? 😀
OK, having way too much fun with this. (Curry has been most devoutly adding meows in all sorts of intonations, begging / demanding, pining for Outside!) My poor neighbors….
If I recall correctly, the extended form of Nefertiti’s name is Nefer-Nefru-Aten-Ta-Shera. She-Ra seems to go nicely with Shu and Sei, but not so well with Tanner.
That full name has a nice sound to it. I wonder what it translates to. “Aten,” I think may be a deity name, related to Amun / Amon (and possibly our word from Hebrew, Amen). IIRC, Aten and Amun, one or both of these were the sun-god. Hmm, my Egyptian mythology and history are really shakier than I’d thought.
She-Ra — I’m getting old cartoon / comics vibes from that. (He-Man and She-Ra? Too much water under the bridge since then.)
How ’bout Sheena, Queen of the Jungle? — My mom was apparently a comics fan when she was a kid/teen, which I hadn’t known until one day she made a comment that her mom (my grandmother) had given one or more boxes of my mom’s comic book collection to Goodwill, without asking, which had greatly peeved my mom. Back in the 80’s/90’s, when there was a movie and TV revival of the Sheena character, around the same time (maybe) as Xena was wending her way across Ancient Greece on TV, heh, my mom had liked that they were bringing back Sheena for a new generation.
Shortly thereafter, we met a friend with two daughters, one named Sheena, with the explanation that there was no connection. Haha.
So, if yon Nefer-Kitty develops regal status with the proper Egyptological accoutrements, well, rock it, baby girl. 😀 (Leopard print headband, peacock-feather fans wielded by hunky servant men, boys, young ladies, as fitting a regal lady? Assorted other things, perhaps linen, silk, gauze…. Hmm….
(I really like Tommie’s idea.)
Ahem :: Chanur and Compact Space :: cough-cough :: hani, mahendo’sat, stash, kif, knnn, t’ca/chi, humans…. :: I wonder what else would stir the story-pot? :: nudge-nudge, wink-wink. :: Ahem, ahem…. Not that I’m wishing, hinting, mind you. It’s just this nervous energy and somehow the above has me thinking of Compact aliens, hani and otherwise.
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Naught on the Curry barn cat possibility as yet.
Aten was the sun god; one of the Pharaohs (Akhenaten) tried to turn all Egypt to monotheism rather than polytheism, worshiping his version of the sun god, which did not go over well. His city dedicated to the Aten did not survive his death for more than a few years.
The Aten was specifically the round Disc of the Sun… and life giving. I’ve just finished a unit on Egyptian Art with my Art History students. One of the carved relief sculptures from Akhenaten’s new city/capital of Amarna (modern name) shows him and Nefertiti sitting on stools smooching their small daughters (well, Akhenaten is smooching one; the daughter Nefertiti holds is getting squirmy) while the Aten sun disc over them extends its rays towards them. The rays end in stylized hands and every other hand holds an ankh, thus the Aten extends life to the royal family.
The thing that has always struck me about the Egyptian art and architectural style is how very modern, sophisticated, and spare it is. It looks elegant and simple, nothing’s wasted. They must have had fads, wild and spirited things, but what we see is mostly a consistent monumental style that was kept in artwork, clothing, jewelry, etc. (Or am I missing a range of styles?) They had good enough math and geometry to do some very fine construction and planning. And yet they were Bronze Age and Iron Age.
(By the way, I haven’t seen too much on what the ethnic / racial makeup of the ancient Egyptians, up through the Greco-Roman period, was, but Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan, both Caucasian or Eurasian and upper sub-Saharan black heritage seem to be in there. They show Nubians and other sub-Saharan Africans as darker skinned.) (I would assume there’s a gradient of travel and contact and intermarriage around the Mediterranean and Saharan Africa and down further south, sub-Saharan countries.)
Off-Topic — Athletic shoe cleaner? — I had washed and air-dried, in a sunny window, a pair of my cheap sneakers. They now have a sour, musty smell. — What should I do to treat these? Spray heavily with household vinegar and rinse? Or a paste of baking soda, a good scrub or let that stay for 24 hours, then scrub, then rinse, then dry? — I’m stuck wearing these today, because cat poop outside the litterbox happened, and I missed it and stepped in it, so the other pair are drying. I don’t particularly want to wear good shoes today, since I may be doing other chores. So tonight or tomorrow, these (and the other pair) will get treated and the socks will go into the next batch of laundry, which is overdue. I am, however still slightly ahead, but not yet caught up with laundry. — So any shoe-cleaner suggestions are welcome.
Phone call from the apts. reminding me I have pkgs. needing pickup. Nominal friends will get (yet another) call Monday.
Doing little stuff around the apt., maybe more box-sorting. Meh. Groceries Monday, I think. It’s looking like Curry will be here over the weekend, necessitating calling around for another option on Monday. Dang it all. The barn cat thing has not panned out yet, but we’ve still got the afternoon to go. Phooey.
Re-wash with vinegar as well as detergent. Through the dryer multiple times on fluff. Also, take the insoles out and dry them separately. Another trick is to stuff them with towels and stand on them until they are almost dry.
I’m still without a dryer, which is why I air-dried them. Okie-dokie, vinegar and detergent, then we’ll try air-drying again, tomorrow morning.
Box-shuffling happened, which neatened up and reduced, just slightly, and I didn’t get finished. More tomorrow or during the week.
Giong to take a break and pet the cats. Curry seems amenable to petting at the moment. If not, well, Goober will get attention then.
No call or knock from the barn cat people. Sincerely do not expect anything on Sunday. So Monday, as I’d thought, dang it, I get to call around again. Is there just a black cloud or an invisibility cloak sitting above me? Sheesh.
Oh boy, he’s caterwauling again. Not sure he’ll be in the mood for friendly attention. We’ll see.oing to read tonight to try to relax. I’m aggravated and disappointed and trying to get things done. Maybe at least by chipping away at it, I’ll get the apt. ship-shape. At some pint, gotta tackle the kitchen and bathroom again. Lots of spider activity in the kitchen lately. Hard to keep up with the little blighters. I don’t like reaching in and finding spiderwebs after recent dusting.
@BCS, it sounded to me as if the barn cat people would take him when he’s spayed. Maybe they are waiting for you to phone them when that is done.
It didn’t sound as if they have the facilities or the money to keep him until then, and pay for the vet.
I hope the Nefertithree idea works out, both in getting Tanner to stop yowling and in getting (and keeping) Sei and Shu accustomed to her, so that when Tanner joins his friend, she can come upstairs to live with you.
The lady I spoke with on the phone said they were understaffed and didn’t usually pick up animals, but that she’d check with people and try to work something out and call me back. They list three clinic locations in the northwest Houston area out toward Tomball and into Magnolia county, all near enough to me that someone could drive here and pick him up. And they list spay and neuter programs and TNR, trap-neuter-release programs, so conceivably, they could do that in-house once they get him, as I read things from their site.
Note: In English, there’s a technicality, a difference in kind: males are neutered, females are spayed. For some reason, they don’t use the term gelded for neutering male cats and dogs. (I’ve never looked up the etymology for “spayed.”)
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Curry had gone through a full week of the Metronidazole, so technically, he was OK to stop medication. Dang it, he’s had a relapse. Though maybe it’s a one-time thing. I’ll know tomorrow. I stopped dosing him because he’d gotten so aggressive with other things. I’m reluctant to try medicating him again, but I think I can still do the wrapping “cat-burrito” method. If I see tomorrow he’s had a second time, then I’ll need to resume the medication until it’s out. Poor kitty, that can’t possibly feel good, and it isn’t good nutritionally and developmentally either. Never mind his behavior, he deserves to be free of bowel troubles.
Tonight, after letting him rest after his evening caterwaul, I went in to see if he’d let me pet him, give him attention. Yes, that was fine, (I was paying careful attention, cautious, but still want to keep him getting the idea that humans can be friendly and can forgive, that positive social interaction can happen.)
He did pretty well, and when I sensed he’d had enough for now, I stopped. No problems and he liked the attention, petting and talking to him. That’s a relief, a good sign. — I am still being wary, paying extra attention to his body language and vocals, though.
I wonder if I should try calling them again (the barn cat project, TexasLitterControl.org, Monday, to see if it could still work out. Think I will do this. Given the clinic locations and my location, someone ought to be able to drive over here without it being too much of a problem. Both where I grew up and our home from when I was college age on are in that area, so I know it’s a 20 to 30 minute drive one way, such as when we’d drive to see my grandmother or twice-weekly to church.
But I may have to go down the list of contacts for other places, again. A few of those are connected to city/county pounds/shelters such as the SPCA. Others are for ferals, or for pets and adoptions. A handful have phone numbers and another handful have only web contact via email, presumably. So this may take a while.
Curry’s frustrated and I’m frustrated. At least tonight was a bit better. I just hope I can get it resolved soon.
Do you have a hair dryer?
LOL, nope, and come to think of it, I don’t recall if I still had one at my old house, or if I’d gotten rid of it. Hmm, worth a price check, though, at least for drying shoes. — I haven’t bathed a cat since I was at my old house. This was much easier: the master bathroom shower had sliding plexiglass doors. So I could simply set said cat down in the shower and reach in just enough to turn on the shower and close to run a few minutes. One soaked cat, who couldn’t directly blame _me_ for it, haha, without the armed combat similar to that monkeys-in-the-tree scene in Hatari, with the guys all dressed up in makeshift monkey armor. Hahaha. Gosh, every now and then, I get in the mood to rewatch that movie.
My family has a Siamese cat when I was a kid. She was a warm and loving cat but could be very, very loud when she wanted to be.
Kitties are so wonderful, I miss having one around I know you will enjoy the little tyke. I once had an arrogant cat, a grey & white long hair, he was very upset when I rescued an orange kitty from a box outside our grocery store at 40 below zero and brought him home. The little guy followed Ghost everywhere however Ghost was not pleased and soon turned on him, swatted him hard several times and after that they were pals – at least Ghost put up with him. The little cat was a strong purrer so I named him Purrble. He got huge so it was a good thing Ghost straightened up.
Iiiiiii…. Oh, I had forgotten what it’s like to live with an un-neutered tomcat. Whew, the stink, even when keeping up with the letterbox and surroundings as much as possible. Oh, there will be another round of mopping and wiping down, although I hope I can last until after I’ve found Curry a new home.
It has made me realize that cats deal with a range of smells and strengths far beyond what we’d put up with. — And I have wondered: nearly-adult male cat, nearly middle-and human male. (OK, closer to middle than I want to admit.) We don’t have quite the same system of cues and responses to smells, but we are both male mammals. There must be some common ground there in terms of instincts we humans (and the cats) are not even aware of. My scents must affect them, their scents must affect me. (Mostly, I’m just appalled at the smells Curry is putting out so strongly around his box. I don’t think he’s marking elsewhere. Yet. I don’t generally notice Goober’s scents except when cleaning his box. (He’s neutered.) So I’d guess there’s not so much in common that we’re really driving each other’s instincts crazy, but there must be something in common, and that would affect us. I guess it’s helped by both species being social, having a social structure like cat colonies and big-cat prides, and human groupings of multiple kinds. We like each other well enough to tolerate whatever else we get from it, I suppose. I just wonder if there’s more to it, and what, on both sides.
It’s had me thinking today about human and alien interactions. I’d suppose the smells back and forth would be so different, it would be unlikely to affect each other too much besides, oh, that smells too weird, or too strong, or bad or good.
Come to think of it, in the books, I don’t recall Pyanfar or Hilfy really thinking about this much, in regard to na Khym or na Hallan or other males, or crewwomen or rivals. Except that hani do like some scents, some perfumes and other scents, food smells, grass smells, and so on, and they are exceedingly careful to bathe multiple times throughout a day/night cycle. I suppose they are both used to it, unaware of it most times, very aware of it in some cases, and scientifically aware of it as modern hani.
Curry, dude, please take it easy. Truce, already, buddy. Whew!
Ah, actually, we’ve had a little reprieve. Part of yesterday and most of today, he has been pretty happy with me. — However, there was also no giving of oral medicine to be so annoying to him, and only one (very careful) instance where he got out and I brought him back in, praying we’d do fine. Thankfully, all was well, no repeats of “C’est la guerre, humain, en garde, j’attaque!” We did surprisingly well. — On my side, I am trying to send out the right “vibe” in attitude, mood, body signals, and at the same time, telling myself to be wary, but if I project too much wariness, it can read as fear or as hostility, or as such mixed signals as to spook him. None of those are good for human-cat relations. I really want us to get along better, and for him to get the idea that it’s possible to get along well with a human, that both sides can forgive and forget, can agree to disagree, can live and let live, without starting some major altercation nobody wants and nobody wins. Possibly, this is getting through to him. But ultimately, he needs a new home.
I see his good behavior, I’m still all too conscious of his extreme bad behavior. — But getting a little of the sweeter, friendlier Curry has sure been a welcome blessing. So he has not gone entirely over the edge, for which, I am very thankful. I’d thought for a while there he had. — The extremes were bad enough, and the continued urgent longing of his to be Outside, Outside! still mean that he needs someplace he will ultimately like better, and I think maybe I’m more reconciled to this being necessary and unavoidable.
Tomorrow, I get to go back to it, to find someplace that will take him, so he can get that new outdoor home he’s longing for. Getting that done is going to be more trouble than I’d anticipated. And I am going to miss his good side, and not miss his not-so-good side or his angry feral kitty bad side. Somehow, this is a reminder of what cats can really be like, their wonderful side and their not-so-wonderful side, and I am getting the idea of just how extraordinary the many good cats in my life have been. — And I want Curry to have a good home where he’s happy and healthy, dang it. Because there is still that sweet, good side to him, and because, tame or feral, he deserves a good life like any living being. Just because we are human, does not give us the sole license in the universe as a species. We share this little blue marble with so many other species who have their own dignity, their own brands of intelligence and wonderfulness and beauty. Why are so many humans so eager to claim we have to be superior, or the only beings on the planet or in the universe worth having around? (OK, so, yeah, I still don’t want any bugs in my place. They can live elsewhere, thanks, but please not here.)
I am not yet sure what else I’m supposed to be learning from all this. But I wish for a better outcome, and I’m sorry this isn’t going to be what I’d hoped for when I took Curry in.
Gppber has spent a lot of today in the bedroom with me, sequestered away. HE likes being comfy-cozy inside, and with me and getting spoiled. (Although, oh yes, at the old house, he thought it was a grand neat trick, a fine game, to try to stay out in the yard or hop the fence to the neighbors.) (When we got to the apartments, however, he got out onto the porch a couple of times, looked around in horror at the concrete and strangeness, and decided ever after that being inside with me was far preferable.
If only Curry could figure that out, and realize I’m no threat and have no desire ever to be one. Oh, I’m human, I have my faults and I can have a temper. I’ve had some dark thoughts about feline misbehavior, and it’s affected my temper more than it used to. But I don’t like seeing that in me, and regard it as something to work on again, while at the same time, I’m learning that there are limits to what I can and should accept. I’m learning too that a cat may want something other than I do, despite all my best intentions, and we may not therefore get along well enough to live together.
That’s a rarity. Nearly always, up until Smokey and Curry, with few other exceptions, I’ve had very good luck, blessed with good cat relations (and dog relations, though I haven’t had a dog since I was a kid).
Eh, anyway, back to it on Monday. We’ve got to get this little guy a good outdoorsy home so it doesn’t drive him, me, Goober, and our neighbors crazy. — They already have their own brands of crazy, and don’t need any additional from a certain yowling young feline fellow. Sigh. Even so, I’m going to miss him some.
Siamese cats are noted for being very vocal. That obnoxious little white boy who used to live with me was half Siamese, and he had an opinion about everything! It’s been documented that cats don’t meow a lot in the wild. However, they pretty quickly figure out that vocalizing at humans gets them attention, though, and they and their humans work out their own little language.
Well, we will be having guests tonight. Our friends John and Lori had to evacuate their condo because of a fast moving brushfire. They and their kitty Zazzle will be spending the night. Hopefully it will all be alarums and excursions for nothing and tomorrow all will be well. I hope they saved me some pizza 😀
Update: One house caught fire at the far end of their street, but the area is now controlled and our guests will not be staying the night. OTOH, on the way here, they were rearended by someone more intent on their cell phone than their driving; the car has an appointment at the body shop tomorrow, but was still driveable. I’m’a tellin’ ya…!
OT As i was reading today, I realized that sophisticated also means ‘knowing’. Thus as one matures, one gets more and more sophisticated, at least ideally.
And furthermore…
Tuesday I noticed that the gods-be-feathered dishwasher was getting backed up and not draining fully. After reviewing several YouTube videos I decided that the filter was probably getting clogged with cruft and needed cleaning. What they didn’t explain was that to remove the filter cover you almost needed to disassemble the interior of the dishwasher, which was a true pain in the okole. Even after unscrewing, prying and cursing the recalcitrant parts, I still was unable to get it to drain, which either means the pump is stuck or the drain pipe is plugged. I threw up my hands and bought a new dishwasher this morning because I wasn’t going to pay anyone to re-plumb an 8 year old cheapest-at-Lowe’s dishwasher, only to have it fail anyhow in a couple of years. And the bilge water was filthy!
Curry is still here. He has been (almost) behaving himself. No kitty anger, nipping, or clawing for the last few days. I am not, however, convinced we’ve had a complete change of heart or meeting of the minds. And lo, the yowling still occurs regularly. Twice, he’s managed to get in the forbidden inner sanctum (my bedroom) but not long enough to christen anything. (Little dude, that is _not_ incense, but it does get me incensed.)
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Behold, the end is nigh! Of the laundry backlog, that is. — Sorry, the waking nightmare that is current national / international events remains willfully awful.
There is a large-fish empty space where sat the backlog. I have at least two more loads to do in a few days, and it will be done! (Halleluiah, Y’all!) One load of current laundry plus the sheets and bedspread need to be changed and washed. So I expect it will be either the end of next week or into November before I am, gasp, entirely caught up. If anything has soured that is currently drying, it’ll need to be rewashed. But yay, I am within sight of it being entirely, blessedly, gloriously done at long last.
I will need to sort through to give some clothes away. — But this could be fine. — My pants (trousers) have kept slipping enough lately that I have taken a big chance and ordered one pair of pants in the next size down, a 34 waist. My gosh, I have not worn a 34 waist since before the change of the millennium, when I hit my mid-30’s. So I am a little excited for this. The odd thing is, I don’t think I’ve lost much of any weight. My equator is still a bit too pear-shaped just above the waistline. (Have you ever seen one of those little old men who is skinny otherwise, except for this little pot belly?) Well, I am a bit more medium-sized or thicker than that, overall, but understand, I was an inch shy of 6 feet at high school graduation and weight all of 135 lbs. soaking wet. I went up to around 145 to 155 when I reached my mid-30’s, and I went up to about 185 since then. (I lost my scales during the move.) I may have lost a little weight, but I’d be surprised if I’ve lost a lot. — Anyway, if I can reliably wear a 34 waist again, I will be very, very impressed. But wardrobe change will be very slow for a while.
Mostly, I want to get things back down to a dull roar, so I don’t have excess things, and with the washer and dryer having given me problems for so long, I’d gotten extra clothes out of necessity. So, hmm, what to keep, what to give away? But this will be a good thing.
I am unbelievably pleased to have that empty space. Things have been sitting there, added to, washed, added to again, washed, chipping away for such a long time. Buying the silly clothes racks has helped a great deal.
I bought a cheap hand-held hair dryer, after Tommie’s great suggestion. I may be trying that to speed up some things drying.
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I’ve ordered a new surge protector, because I think one of the plugs on this one has gone out. I’ve ordered an 18650 battery charger with 4 bays, because the 2 bay USB one isn’t always cutting it. I had a heck of a time getting Amazon to show me 18650 batteries, instead of AA or AAA or others, or chargers or various other odds and ends for 18650 batteries. Hoping this will help.
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I watched a couple of episodes of the old late 90’s / early 2000’s Dark Angel series from James Cameron, starring Jessica Alba. I still really like the show and am going to do a complete rewatch. I’d wanted to refresh my memory, because a plot / character point got me to thinking of an idea. No idea if a finished fanfic will ensue, but it might. — The series got kinda goofy in the 2nd season, but if they had had a chance at a couple more seasons, I think they might have gotten back to a better storyline or mythos. There’s room enough to try a few things in there, so I’m a-gonna try ’em.
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Otherwise just meh. Either a couple of new families moved in a couple of months ago, or some new people moved in with at least the upstairs neighbors. Or their schedule changed too. For the past several weeks, things have been noisier upstairs and outside. Neighbor kids of the smaller rugrat variety have been very active (and noisy) outside, such as me having to tell one little kid (through the window) not to hit the window like that, or he/she could break it. Overall, the kids are just being kids, a little wild, but OK. — But wow, the feet tromping around right above me, including during the night at odd hours, sometimes sounds really loud. (Tromp, tromp, squeak, squeak) Rather ominous from the flooring at times. I, uh, really do hope the floor and ceiling will be OK, or the neighbors and myself will both be very, very, ah, surprised and inconvenienced!
A cultural thing: I am not used to hearing the f-bomb so often or so casually from people. But this includes people’s music. And last week, one afternoon, I was really surprised to hear one young guy completely casually and almost affectionately, call the little boy he was talking to, m-f-er, in casual conversation making some point. I’d guess the kid was his son or nephew or kid brother, or else his girlfriend’s kid, elementary school age. Yes, I heard cuss words as a boy from other boys, so I do know this happens, but…somehow that instance struck me, overhearing it outside my window, as, wow, dude, did you really just call that little boy that, casually, like it’s nothing? — At least he wasn’t angry and cussing the kid out or hitting. They were talking about something or other, I don’t know what, but the guy’s tone was friendly. :: shrugs :: I don’t think I would’ve been surprised if it had been a teenager instead of a fairly young kid, but I/d guess the little guy was well under 12 from the sound of his voice. :: shrugs ::
You might think I’m way more prudish or sheltered than I am. I think I’m fairly easygoing these days. But every now and then around here, it’s still a mild shock to me, some of the culture shock, things others take for granted that I did not grow up with. (Oh, I was absolutely _not_ supposed to cuss. Never mind that I heard it plenty at school. I grew up a church kid. I try not to cuss out loud. But that has gotten more lax due to life being wearying over the years. And in story-writing, I’d tend to let characters talk in multiple was, many of which I would not personally tend to use, whether I’d be OK with that or would like to, or not.
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Goober still wants to be right with me, and is not banned from the bedroom. So he comes to the door, paws at it, and meows to be let in. This is fine. — Curry remains permanently banned. But he’s gotten in a couple of times this past week, and he has noticed he can meow at the door and get some attention. (Sigh.)
On the other hand, I’ve realized he needs more attention. So we have a thawing, a détente, an almost meeting of the minds. That’s better, though. — I have had to ask myself if I was carrying a grudge or staying angry, unfairly. I still don’t feel I can entirely trust him not to get mad and act out, though. That feral streak is there, stronger than I’d realized, and I am still wary of it. But I have gone back to giving him more attention and trying to be friendly, loving, and open with him. — And I still have work to do toward finding him a permanent home, someone (group) who will pick him up. But until then, he’s still here, still “part of the crew,” as a guest and member who’s been put on watch, restricted privileges aboard, you might say.
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Chondrite, I’m glad you and your friends are OK. Ack, on the dishwasher but it’s good you could replace it.
My refrigerator is acting up a little. I have an iceberg dripped, stalactite to stalagmite, from the ceiling of it near the light, to the first shelf. I’ve tried adjusting the temperature, but that only resulted in either dripping water from condensation, or icing over. The seal around the door is tricky, or rather, the door itself can be tricky. I have to watch it or it may not always truly shut tight and seal. So I’m being very careful. Dunno what has set it off about the condensation and icing or dripping, which is a new thing. — I have not yet gone through the freezer and refrigerator to clean it entirely and redistribute, so maybe that will take care of it.
Still no new dryer, and currently no plans for one. Have not heard from those so-called friends of mine, and I gave it several days’ radio silence from my end, because I’m tired of calling, hearing promises, and then nothing happening. But I will have to call them again to remind them son. The one friend is supposed to have contractor contacts and could, he had said, get me a reduced price on a washer and/or dryer, new, about what he’d pay for them wholesale or contractor, to put in a home renovation for a house-flip. — But then I didn’t hear back. So…I will ask, but at present, not particularly planning to do anything. Going for the air-dry method still..
Groceries will happen at the start of next week. I skipped ordering this week, so it will be about a month after all, since my last order. Trying to be careful on budget, and I’ve spent more than I’d intended this month.
I hope everyone’s all right. Doing so-so here, trying to stay positive. The situation overall and the situation with Curry, has had me down most of this week. But I am hanging in there, plugging away at it anyway. Even a little bit of progress lately is something.
And yeah, I’m impressed that here’s that empty spot. It’s been taken up by a box of laundry for ages now. Finally free, there. Still hoping to get everything de-cluttred, neat and organized, by year-end if not sooner. The storage space may happen when it cools off, IF I can miraculously generate movement with those friends or someone else here.
Still have not located where I’d put some papers. Hoping to find those this weekend, but so far, haven’t found them.